Two Day's Old!

On June 3rd the pregnant doe that's been hanging around under the birdfeeders in hopes that the softhearted fool equally hanging around in the adjacent barn will toss just one more handful of corn her way was - well - hanging around under the birdfeeders.

The next day she didn't show up at all.

Seeing as how she's been a regular, multi-times per-day, visitor for the past month this was notable and, given the nature of these things, the softhearted fool figured she might be busy dropping the little one.

One more no-show day and the softhearted fool - OK, OK, me - was pretty sure there was a new resident of the neighborhood.

June 6th I looked out the door and the doe was back, munching down on a few leftover kernels of corn like it was just any other day, but to my surprise, she had the little one with her!!

She was more twitchy than usual, but that didn't stop her from soon returning once I tossed a little more corn.

I say surprised because the doe's usually keep fawns secluded and out of sight until they are about two weeks old, but here she had brought a virtual newborn down and, as long as I stayed behind the glass of the door, she let me get to within a few feet. (Many of the photos here are not their sharpest because I had to shoot through the double-paned glass of the door.)



Of course one advantage of going along with mom on road trips is near continuous access to the buffet. Like having your very own Vegas Casino on the hoof.



But the downside is that the buffet is on the hoof and can, without warning - well - hoof-it.

 

And when you're this small, when mom hoofs-it you want, I mean really want, to be sticking close.

 

 But when you can walk under mom's belly, head up, with room to spare, following her can have it's challenges.



In fact things can quickly turn into a game of hide-and-seek.


Spotting mom out and about with such a young fawn once was pretty remarkable, yet little more than an hour later the two of them ambled by between me and the pond.

 
 But like all youngsters, this one was pretty sure mom was dragging him/her away from something really interesting back there.

Mom returned to the feeders this morning, but apparently she learned her lesson yesterday and left the fawn bedded down somewhere where it will stay motionless until mom returns or until some clumsy buffoon not paying attention nearly trips over it. (Yep, did that to one of last year's crop of fawns one afternoon when walking down to the well house.)

And these next two photos are to give figurative hope (No, not figuratively, I mean literally figurative hope!)  to all those women out there about to experience their first child. For those women that have been there, done that and know better, this is to make you jealous.

June 3rd, about to burst and having to resort to granny panties.

 

Same girl today, June 7, (Note the scrape down her front left leg in both photos, probably from misjudging a fence) all perky and svelte, ready for bikini weather.